Home // Blog // Kitten Catastrophe Designer Journal #1: And Now for Something Completely Different

Kitten Catastrophe Designer Journal #1: And Now for Something Completely Different

With the current fundraising campaign going on for Spiral Bridge’s first gaming effort, Rack & Ruin, it is easy to completely turn my attention that way.Â However, that is not the only pot on the stove.

A new game I have been working on called Kitten Catastrophe has also be grabbing my attention.Â The rules have been given a first draft, and now the other game pieces are being put together so game testing can begin.

KC is entirely different than Rack & Ruin.Â First of all it is a board game, and has no campaign element.Â It is also designed to be family friendly and more casual, appealing to an entirely different audience.

In this game players take on the role of a litter of mischievous kittens that are left alone when mommy cat and the people leave the house.Â Now they can run wild, and the kitten that can break the most stuff before mom and the people get home is the winner.

The game board is a center piece called the “Hallway” and the four other modular rooms.Â Players take turn placing the rooms, by attaching them to the Hallway.

There are four kittens in the base game, each kitten has a special ability.Â Players take turn selecting which kitten he or she will play.Â The players then place their kitten in a room and determine turn order.

During a kitten’s turn he or she can take a few different actions.Â First, a kitten can Notice, which means the player takes a stuff card from their hand and places it in the room the kitten is currently occupying.Â Â A kitten can also Pounce, which is attempt to tussle another kitten and move them from the current room.Â Additionally, a kitten can spend his or her turn moving.Â However, the main point of the game is to take the Smash action and destroy some stuff.

Smashing stuff is how a kitten wins the game, when a kitten smashes something it goes into her victory pile.Â Some things are too hard for a kitten to smash all on their own, so they might need to launch stuff harder than themselves in order to smash it.

Ideally, players will want to place stuff that they can smash quickly, before another kitten comes along and smashes it first.Â However, chaining and combining multiple smashes into one turn will be more efficient and allow a player to draw more cards on their turn.Â The more cards a player can draw, the more stuff he or she will have for a kitten to smash.

At the time of writing I am laying the ground work for the card deck.Â The challenge is to find a balance between combo cards and stuff.Â Too much stuff and the game will get bogged down, too many action cards and players will have a hard time getting points.Â I plan to start with aÂ 50/50 split and work from there.

The rules will be posted here on the website soon, that way players can take a look and give me some feedback.

This journal will be updated soon, once I have finished the card deck.